Microbead Christmas

Micro beads have been around for awhile, but I've never used them before.  I've been seeing examples of their use on-line - particularly the clear ones - and have been intrigued.  I finally got to a scrapbook store last weekend and picked some up.  I couldn't wait to try them out.  So - today's post shows a couple of Christmas cards with clear micro beads.  The first card started with a stamped image something like the one below:

I colored it in with metallic watercolors that create a fun shimmer.  Next, I took a sheet of double-sided adhesive and cut a piece just slightly smaller than my focal.  I peeled off the backing sheet on one side and centered the adhesive on my focal with a small border around.  Then I simply pulled off the top sheet, poured my micro beads over the top of it, pressing them down to help insure good adhesion.  My focal ended up looking like this:

I took a card, covered it with striped paper, and trimmed the edges with my fancy-edged paper trimmer. I took a ribbon and wrapped it around my focal, tying a bow before adhering the whole thing to the front of my card. Then I added a little red strip of greeting at the top. I found myself wishing I had left a border of white on the card rather than running the stripes all the way to the edge.  Obviously I couldn't go back and change that, but decided to try to fake it a bit with a white border that I made using "innies" from a sheet of white Dazzles borders.

My next micro bead card started with a printed piece I found in a book I got some time ago. It was published by Dorling Kindersley and is called "The Press-out Victorian Christmas Book".  It was designed to be the base of a small card itself, but I thought it would be nice as a focal for a larger card.  I thought it would be interesting to cover it with micro beads, so I cut a piece of the adhesive sheet that was just larger than the focal.  Then I fussy cut around it before adding the micro beads - this time, clear to the edge.  I matted it on black and then on a light green and gold patterned paper, adding a ribbon before adhering it to the card.  I found a greeting in my stash and added it at the bottom.  Unfortunately, the picture doesn't show the micro beads well, but they look nice in person. I feel the card needs something else though, but haven't yet decided what.  Maybe a flower at the center of the bow?